I first met Steve Strope in 1995 while photographing his 1965 Chevy El Camino at what is now known as Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. That car/truck appeared in the October ’96 issue of HOT ROD. Sometime later, Steve showed up unannounced in this author’s Van Nuys, California, driveway with a 1966 Dodge Charger that would go on to become Skully, the fully custom-built rod that was featured in the October 1998 issue of HOT ROD and on HOT ROD’s Top Ten list for 1999.
Skully went from totally stock to a street machine that blew everyone away. When Steve showed me the car in stock form and explained what he had planned for it, I thought the plans were overly ambitious, but damn if he didn’t pull it off. In the process, Steve started what would become Pure Vision
